Stephen Colbert trashes Sacramento in interview with ‘Lady Bird’ star

Late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert interviewed lead actress Saoirse Ronan on Tuesday, December 5, 2017, about the film "Lady Bird", which is set in Sacramento and directed by native daughter Greta Gerwig. After Ronan heaped praise on Gerwig

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Late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert interviewed lead actress Saoirse Ronan on Tuesday, December 5, 2017, about the film "Lady Bird", which is set in Sacramento and directed by native daughter Greta Gerwig. After Ronan heaped praise on Gerwig

The late-night talk show host interviewed lead actress Saoirse Ronan on Tuesday night about the film, which is set in Sacramento and directed by native daughter Greta Gerwig.

After Ronan heaped praise on Gerwig’s directorial debut, Colbert asked how she kept her natural Irish accent hidden during some of the more challenging scenes, such as when she auditions for the school music.

“It is sort of a generic American accent in some ways, but actually the Sacramento accent – I never realized before, and I don’t know if you –” Ronan began.

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“I’ve been to Sacramento. I am aware of how boring it is,” Colbert interjected.

“Sacramento’s a beautiful place,” Ronan responded as the audience chuckled.

“Very beautiful, but there’s not a lot to do,” Colbert said.

“It’s very pretty. We like it. And Greta loves it, and that’s the main thing,” Ronan replied.

Ronan went on to describe the difficulty of picking up a laid-back California accent, tense scenes with her on-screen mother (played by Laurie Metcalf) and the broad appeal of “Lady Bird,” which overtook “Toy Story 2” as the most-reviewed movie to maintain a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It wasn’t the first time Colbert picked on the region. As a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 1999, he traveled to Davis to interview then-Mayor Julie Partansky about the city’s $20,000 toad tunnel, plus plans to build a police station out of straw bales and plant fruit trees to feed the needy.

Family, friends and fans lined up outside Tower Theatre in Sacramento on Sunday night (October 30, 2017) for the local premiere of Sacramento-native Greta Gerwig’s autobiographical film “Lady Bird.” She spoke to the audience before and after the f